The silicon pad is a carrier which transfers the patterns from the steel plate onto the products' surface. Pad printing silicone rubber is used to producing the silicone pad. It has the advantage of good printing effects, good quality, good resilience, and without any impurity.

Operation instructions
1. Firstly, clean the mold with detergent, and dry it by a piece of cloth or an air gun and then coat the mold with a layer of release agent.

2. Generally, the ratio of pad printing silicone rubber and the silicone oil depends on the size of pattern which customer needs to print. The larger the pattern is, the softer the printing pad should be, and more silicone oil needs to add. Contrarily, if a silicon pad with high hardness needed, silicone oil should be added less or none. General hardness of the printing pad is 15A°~-25 A°. If too much silicone oil added in the silicone rubber, the printing pad will be too soft, and this will limit the printing times. For silicone oil will destroy the molecular chain of the silicone rubber, no matter how supreme quality the silicone rubber is. And therefore, the printing pad will be abrasion intolerant and solvent intolerant and easy ageing.

3. General mixing proportion is as follows: add 30g silicone oil into 100g pad printing silicone rubber, and then hardness of 20A° printing pad we get, which is suitable for the pad printing for alloy car and other products with small patterns and contact areas. If a big contact surface or a soft silicon pad needed, the mixing proportion between the pad printing silicone rubber and the silicone oil can be 100:30-100:50. But please note that the more silicone oil added, the softer the silicon pad will be, which will also reduce printing times, abrasion resistance and solvent resistance. Therefore, cost increase and material waste will occur.

4. Relation between the amount of the curing agent added and the chemical reaction of the silicone rubber is as follows: mix 100g pad printing silicone rubber and 50g silicone oil sufficiently and evenly, then add the curing agent which is 2%-3% of the total weight of the silicone rubber and the silicone oil, keep stirring for 2-3 minutes, and then deair to remove the air bubbles. It is better to finish deair within 10 minutes. For if it takes too long, it may cause fast curing and affect the quality of the printing pad.

Frequently asked questions about pad printing silicone rubber1. Why the silicon pad is non-durable?
(1) This problem is caused not by the liquid silicone rubber itself, but in the process of filtering, the filtering handled not properly and impurities are not all filtered out; or in the process of packing as containers not cleaned thoroughly.
(2) As the silicone oil will break the molecular chain of the silicone rubber. More silicone oil added, softer the pad printing will be, meanwhile nondurable and easy ageing it will also turn to be.
(3) Some customers do not know well about the performance of silicone rubber. Actually, the durability of printing pad is closely related to the size of printing pattern. Some factories do not want to take the trouble to change the printing pad. While in fact, for large pattern, large silicone pads should be used, otherwise, use small one.(Generally, the ratio of the silicone pad to printing pattern is 3:1)

2. Why the printed pattern is incomplete or not clear?
(1) If the silicon pad is too hard while the pattern is very delicate or small, the printing patterns will be incomplete or not very clear, for in that way the silicon pad could not adsorb the printing ink from the steel plate well. If your pattern is very delicate or small, please use soft silicon pad for pad printing.
(2) If the percentage of water in the ink is very high, the printing pattern also will be incomplete, and spot may appeared. For this situation, please clean your ink box, or change the printing ink or Tianna water.

3. Why the silicon pad did not absorb the ink?
Any silicon pad or liquid silicone rubber could absorb ink well. If large patterns or big letters need to print, the printing pad will for sure absorb ink well. For small letters, please do not use hard silicon pad, as it could not absorb the printing ink thoroughly from the steel plate.

4. Why the silicon pad can not transfer the printing pattern well?
It is normal phenomena that every two out of ten products have this problem if the plastic toys are not spray painted. As in the production process, mold release agent will be sprayed onto the surface of the steel plate for every dozen products, and there will be some mold release agent left on the surface of the first one or two product. Please use Tianna water or face-clean water to clean the products before used for pad printing.

5. Why we should add silicone oil into pad printing silicon?
Customers should change the hardness of the silicon pad according to the different patterns. Silicon oil can change the hardness and the viscosity of the liquid silicone rubber.

6. How to make a silicone pad?
(1) At first, prepare all the tools like the pad mold, a cup for mixing, and a glass stick. Clean the pad mould with detergent, and dry the pad mould with an air-gun or cloth, then brush a lay of mold release agent.
(2) For second step, adjust the ratio between the silicone rubber and silicone oil according the customer's requirement. If customers want to print large pattern, soft silicon pad need and silicone oil need to add, otherwise, hard silicone pad need, less silicone oil to add or none.

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